


Trust

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Blood, M/M, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 17:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14815664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: “Why are you giving me this?” Reiji says, but he already knows.  It’s in the panicked leap of his heart in his chest, the sudden tightening of his windpipe.Yuya leans back, and meets Reiji’s eyes with his own.  Then he sighs, and lets his forehead lean against Reiji’s, eyes closing.“Because if it ever has to be done,” he whispers.  “I know you won't hesitate."





	Trust

How did they come to this, to this barren earth and stone, to the warm slickness against his hands, and the body that was far too heavy in his arms?  How did they find themselves here?

“It wasn’t supposed to end like this,” he whispers, but his voice is barely more than a gasp, a choked sound that makes it hard to breathe.  “We weren’t supposed to be here.”

 

Bards didn’t normally travel so far by themselves, especially this deep into a dungeon— which is why he’s surprised to see the telltale insignia, the golden dragon with the tail wound up against its back with harp strings between it and the body, pinned to the boy’s lapel.

The boy flashes him a wide smile, eyes twinkling.

“Thank goodness!” he says, smacking back a snarling giant rat with the flat of his rapier.  “I was hoping I’d make enough noise to bring along another adventurer. Think you could give me a hand with these?”

That smile is so out of place, among the dark, dingy stone walls and the barely burning torchlight, and yet it seems to light the whole world on fire.  He grunts in response, jamming his torch into the ground and unclasping his greatsword.

“This is why you shouldn’t travel alone,” he said, after the rats were disposed of.

“Oh?  And are you one to talk, sir?” the boy laughs, winking at him.

He laughs when the other grimaces.

“I’m different.  I can handle myself.”

“So can I.”

“It’s not wise for bards to travel on their own.  Don’t you have a guild assignment?”

The boy’s eyes glitter with something he cannot understand.  And without answering the question, he sweeps off his wide brimmed, feathered hat, and bows deeply.

“Yuya Sakaki, at your service,” he said.  “I don’t suppose you might be in the market for a companion?”

 

He feels a cold hand touch his face, warm in places with the blood.  It’s everywhere.

“Yuya,” he gasps.  “Yuya. Open your eyes.”

“Can’t,” he mumbles, and there it is, the awful smile on his lips he knew he’d see there.  “Too hard.”

“Yuya.  This can’t end like this.”

Yuya’s lips peel back in a smile, and his teeth are flecked with red.  His thumb weakly runs beneath the other’s eye, brushing away tears he hadn’t known were rushing down his face.

“I’m sorry,” he says.  “I wish it didn’t have to.”

 

“And from the mountain rose a mighty roar!”

Yuya’s voice courses over campfire, so loud it almost has a physical presence that pushes the others back.  Yuzu laughs as she nearly topples from her seat atop the fallen tree, and Gongenzaka rolls his eyes. Tsukikage’s eyes twinkle with amusement.

Yuya strums his lute with a dramatic flourish, his cape rising up with the flare and sparkle of magic.  He’s using up a lot, just for this simple campfire show. That’s just like him— never did anything halfway.

“The dragon leaped free from the maw of the cavern, and before the hero could blink, the creature was on him!”

The air swirls and twists into the shape of a sparkling golden dragon, letting out puffs of smoke.  Sawatari grudgingly claps, looking sour about it.

“It seemed to be the end; our hero would never again see the face of his beloved with or without the treasure he came so far to find,” Yuya says, lowering his voice to a whisper, that still yet carried from the weight of his magic.  “Would this be the end of all of his adventures, forever?”

He plays a short, eerie chord on his lute, and then, with a wink, he plops back down onto his seat.

Selena, who has been leaning forward with such intense fascination that she was nearly off her seat, jumps and nearly topples forward.

“No!” she says.  “Not another cliffhanger!!”

“When are you ever going to finish a story?” Sawatari says.  “It’s unprofessional, you know.”

“I’m still writing this one,” Yuya says, laughing. “You guys are my test audience.”

“Well it _sucks_ ,” Selena gripes, folding her arms and pouting.

Yuya laughs again, and the sound is so infectious that he, and the rest of the party, find themselves smiling.  He smiles a bit more when Yuya flops against his shoulder, grinning up at him.

“Well, Reiji?” he asks.  “What did you think of my story?”

“I think it needs to finally have an ending,” Reiji says, raising his eyebrows.

“Not you tooooo,” Yuya moans dramatically, flopping down so that his head was in Reiji’s lap.

 

Reiji grips Yuya’s hand, holding it against his face before it could slip away.  

“I won’t allow this,” he gasps.  “I won’t let go. I...I must have a heal left.  I can save you.”

“No,” Yuya whispers.  “No, Reiji, I know you don’t.  It’s...it’s okay.”

He smiles again and it only makes Reiji feel worse.  What has he done?

Yuya tries to lean up towards him, and Reiji props him up so that their faces are close enough to feel each other’s breaths.

“Do...” Yuya coughs, struggling to speak.  “Do you want to hear...the end of the story?”

 

It’s cold— autumn is on the way.  Reiji hates being away from his warm bed roll at this time of night, when it’s not even his turn at taking watch, but nature calls.

As he rebuckles his belt, something splashes in the distance.  He tenses. There’s a small river and pool nearby; they refilled their waterskins there this afternoon.  It must just be a fish, or a fox, or something.

 _Sploosh, sploosh_.

No, that sounds like a person, walking through the river.  Who would be in the water at this time of night, in the cold?  That water must be freezing.

Someone must be trying to sneak up on them.

Reiji puts his hand against the pommel of his blade and carefully picks his way through the forest.  He is not made for stealth, and he really should go back to where Tsukikage is keeping watch and tell him to do a reconnaissance, but Reiji is already close enough, and he can’t let his party be caught unawares.  He’ll send up a horn call if he has to.

_Splish, sploosh._

_Pant, pant, pant._

Heavy breaths.  Ragged ones. It sounds like someone is trying hard to breathe, like someone is hurt.  Maybe they’re not being ambushed— maybe someone needs help. Reiji pushes forward through the brush, and hesitates at the edge, looking out into the clear space around the river.

For a moment, in the dark with only the stars to light the way, there’s only a strange, silvery lump at the edge of the water.

Then he recognizes the hat.

“Yuya!”

He punches through the foliage, and all at once, Yuya’s face jerks up.  Reiji freezes.

Yuya’s skin has gone as gray as barren soil, cracked and marked like dry earth.  There are spikes protruding from his shoulders, his skin covered in pearly silver scales.  Long talons grow out of his fingers, and his pants are ripped with the tail that’s burst out of his skin.  Black markings cover his body in eerie, occult designs, and Reiji feels his heart rise up in his throat. What’s happened?

“Don’t,” Yuya gasps, his bright yellow eyes filling up with tears.  “Please, don’t look at me. Don’t look at me like this.”

It’s still Yuya’s voice, even if the rest of him isn’t there.  Reiji hesitates. Yuya just moans, then, putting his clawed hands over his face.  His body convulses, and Reiji snaps out of his shock.

“Yuya, are you hurt?”

He tries to step forward but Yuya cries out.

“D-don’t come any closer, please, Reiji, don’t come closer.  T-The water is h-helping but if you get close I might— I might hurt you, I don’t want to hurt you.”

He moans and drags himself backwards, trying to bury himself in the gently running water.  Reiji can only stand there, helpless, while Yuya shudders and thrashes in the water. After a few, awful moments, Reiji can’t take it anymore.  He comes closer again, and Yuya flinches.

“Reiji—”

“I’m not leaving you alone like this.”

“Reiji, please—”

Reiji is already ankle deep in the river.  Yuya shies back, but his pupils narrow into slits, and he starts to pant even more rapidly.  His tail begins to lash back and forth. Reiji sees his claws twitching, and knows in his gut that Yuya will probably attack him.  He doesn’t know why, but it’s clear Yuya can’t help himself.

Reiji sits down in the water— it’s like ice seeping through his pants, but he ignores it.  Before Yuya can lose control, he wraps his arms around him, pulling him into his chest.

“Attack me if you must,” he says.  “But I will not leave you by yourself.”

He feels a wetness spreading from his shoulder, then, too, but that’s not from the river.  Yuya buries his face into Reiji’s chest and tries to cling to him. It’s all he can do just to breathe.

 

“D-don’t you want to hear h-how the story ends?”

“Yuya, don’t talk right now.  You’re hurt.”

“Reiji, I’m dying,” Yuya gasps.  “P-please, it’s okay...I j-just want you to accept it...so that you can be okay...”

“This is— this is wrong,” Reiji swears.  “How could— you didn’t deserve—”

Yuya sighs, nestling his head against Reiji’s chest.

“I know,” he gasps, eyes watering with tears.  “I-I don’t want to die either.”

He smiles weakly.

“T-thank you for...for holding...me...”

Reiji’s eyes blur with tears and he can’t even see Yuya’s face anymore.  This is all his fault.

 

Yuya is normal again once the sun breaks the horizon, and Reiji startles awake.  He’s not sure how he dozed off like this, crosslegged in ankle deep water with Yuya awkwardly pressed against him, but he is slightly frosted at the tips of his clothes and knows the water won’t be good for him.

Yuya, however, is a normal fleshy color again, his eyes closed and his breaths regular.  He stirs when Reiji does. His eyes flutter, and they are his normal apple red once again.

“Are you feeling all right?” Reiji whispers, and Yuya jolts, looking up at Reiji with an open mouth.  Memory seems to come over him then, and he sags in Reiji’s arms.

“Did I hurt you?” he asks, voice strained.

“No.  You didn’t.”

Yuya’s forehead falls against Reiji’s chest.  Reiji automatically brings up one hand to gently stroke his hair.

“I’m Enthralled,” Yuya mumurs once the two of them are on the bank of the river.  He sits with his knees pulled up against his chest, staring at the ground.

Reiji looks over his shoulder from where he’s wringing out his clothes.  Yuya won’t look at him.

“Y-you know what that means, right?” Yuya says.  “You’re a paladin, you should know.”

“I do know,” Reiji says.  “It means you’ve been bound by servitude to someone else.  Cursed.”

He looks at Yuya, and Yuya buries his face against his knees.

“Thralls don’t normally stray far from their masters without orders, though,” he says.

“I...I broke it.  But only halfway. I can’t explain it.  Something in me snapped off the lock, but it was like breaking one manacle and the other still being attached.  I...I remember myself, and I can fight his influence if I try hard enough, but...”

Yuya shudders.  Reiji finishes drying his clothes as much as he can, and comes back to Yuya.  Yuya’s own clothes are discarded across the ground; he probably took them off in anticipation of the transformation.  So Reiji unwraps his scarf and drapes it over his shoulders. Yuya jumps at first, but when the soft fabric touches his skin, his fingers curl into it automatically.

“My brothers and I were only eleven,” he mumbles.  “The dragon came so fast. It wasn’t like the other dragons, the ones we knew that lived around our valley.  This one was violent. It demanded sacrifice. W-we were the sacrifice.”

He swallows.

“He made us drink his blood so that he could control us.  It makes us violent, like him, makes us want to hurt and destroy things for him.  Even though I’ve broken half away...his influence still surfaces on dark nights.”

He pulls the scarf around him tighter, and Reiji puts a hand on his shoulder.

“My brothers are still with him, fully Enthralled.  I don’t know how I managed to break it, and— and I feel awful for leaving them, but I knew I couldn’t save them where I was.  The closer I am to him, the harder it is to remember myself. I had to run, so I could find someone who could save them—”

He’s crying, now, his shoulders shaking.

“I’m so sorry, I should have said something, but I was so scared, scared that you might all abandon me after all this time— and I wouldn’t be able to blame you, I-I’ve woken up in the night with aching fangs and the need to rip the nearest person apart—”

“But you never have,” Reiji says softly.

Yuya finally looks at him, just a peek from under his bangs, eyes watering.

“You’ve never hurt any of us,” Reiji says again, moving his hand to Yuya’s back.  “You’re strong, Yuya. You’re stronger than you think you are.”

“I’m a monster,” he whispers.

“No,” Reiji says.  “You’re not.”

He leans his head against the side of Yuya’s and closes his eyes.

“You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

 

He can’t stop crying.  He wants to stop, so that Yuya can pass peacefully, but he also can’t let go.

“T-the hero f-flees from the d-ragon’s cave,” Yuya mumbles.  “T-The dragon chases him.”

The whole world is oppressively silent.  He doesn’t even know if the rest of the party is alive, or if they’re all still chasing the dragon and his last three thralls.

“I’ll avenge you,” Reiji promises.  “I’ll avenge you, and I’ll save your brothers.  I promise, Yuya. I’ll set them free.”

Yuya smiles again, but his eyes are fading out, he’s no longer focusing on Reiji’s face.  His hands are sliding off his chest and out of Reiji’s hand, still slick with blood that still leaks out of him.

“The hero s-stays away for a w-while, a f-few steps ahead of the d-dragon.  H-he meets friends. Allies. Loved ones. H-he’s happy. H-he doesn’t remember being happy before.”

“Yuya.  Yuya, you don’t have to talk. It’s— it’s all right, it’s all right.”

He can’t breathe.  He can’t even see Yuya’s face.

 

“So that’s why you never have scars.”

Yuya smiles, but it’s a nervous expression.  His bare arm, where he was just recently cut by a goblin blade, shows no markings.

“I guess that’s the upside of being Enthralled.  I’m not allowed to die til my master says it’s okay.”

He tries to laugh, as though it’s a joke, and Reiji frowns.  He takes Yuya’s hand in his where Yuya’s holding it out towards him.  Yuya blinks with surprise.

Reiji runs one finger over Yuya’s smooth skin up his arm, testing for any imperfections.  He hears Yuya inhale sharply, and then a flush comes to Reiji’s cheeks as he realizes what he’s doing.  He doesn’t let go, though. He doesn’t want to.

Yuya doesn’t pull away either.  In fact, he leans closer. Outside the tent, Reiji can hear Selena swearing at Sawatari for something.  There’s a crash, like someone threw a pot or something. He ignores it. The only thing that exists right now is Yuya’s eyes staring into his, the look of his lips as they part softly.

Yuya is leaning against his knees, then, his face coming so close that Reiji can almost taste him.  His eyes half close, but he’s not willing to tear his gaze entirely from Yuya’s face yet.

When Yuya’s lips brush his, it’s a gentle, faint touch.  It’s teasing, almost, and Reiji almost resents it. When Yuya starts to duck away, Reiji puts his hand against the back of Yuya’s neck— gently, so as not to force him, but enough to tell him that he wants him to stay.  

It seems this is all of the encouragement that Yuya needs.  He leans forward and presses his lips hard against Reiji’s, and the two of them crash together.  Reiji forgets, for a moment, what it is like to breathe.

They break apart, gasping, and Yuya has gotten so close that he’s practically sitting on Reiji’s lap now, his arms wrapped around his shoulders.  For a moment, Reiji thinks Yuya might kiss him again, and he wishes he would.

Instead, Yuya just slides his head down against Reiji’s shoulder, and Reiji puts his arms around him and sighs, breathing in his faint scent— flowery, the scent of magic.  His magic.

“Reiji,” Yuya whispers.  “Do you still trust me?”

“Of course.”

“I might lose control someday.”

“And we’ll all be here to support you.”

“He’s still looking for me, I know he is.  If he gets too close, he’ll be able to control me again.  He might make me hurt you. Are you sure you and the others don’t want to...”

Reiji pulls back just enough to pull Yuya’s face in front of him gently, cupping his face in one hand.  His eyes are glazed with nervousness, teeth digging into his lip.

“No,” he says firmly.  “Yuya, none of us will abandon you.  You will not be abandoned.”

“Everyone leaves when they learn,” Yuya whispers, his voice hoarse, eyes thick with fear.  “I’m afraid. I’m afraid of going back. Of being alone. Of being trapped in my own head.”

“Did any of us leave you when you told us?” Reiji says softly.

Yuya can only let out a whimper before the tears start falling, and he lets his head fall against Reiji’s chest.  Reiji tucks him beneath his chin and gently strokes his hair.

“I love you, Yuya,” he whispers.  “I won’t abandon you.”

Yuya swallows thickly.

“I love you, Reiji,” he says, sounding almost scared to let the words out.  “And...and I trust you. More than anything.”

He feels Yuya’s hand reach for his, sliding it down off of his shoulder and into their laps.  He tenses when he feels Yuya put something into his hand. Something solid. When he wraps his fingers around it, he realizes what it is.  The pommel of a blade.

He tries to release it, but Yuya keeps his hand closed around it.

“It’s dragonbone,” Yuya whispers.  “It’s the only thing that can kill an Enthralled.”

“Why are you giving me this?” Reiji says, but he already knows.  It’s in the panicked leap of his heart in his chest, the sudden tightening of his windpipe.

Yuya leans back, and meets Reiji’s eyes with his own.  Then he sighs, and lets his forehead lean against Reiji’s, eyes closing.

“Because if it ever has to be done,” he whispers.  “I know you won't hesitate."

 

“A-and he was happy,” Yuya says, voice getting thinner and thinner.  Reiji tries to cling to his hand, but it’s slipping free. Yuya has no more strength to cling back.  “He was so happy. T-Thank you, Reiji, for letting me be happy.”

“I won’t forget you,” Reiji chokes.  “Yuya. I won’t forget you. I’m sorry.”

The pommel of the dragonbone blade sticks from Yuya’s chest like an awful flag.  Yuya manages one last weak, faint smile.

“I love you,” he whispers.  “T-thank you, Reiji....goodbye.”

Reiji presses his lips to Yuya’s smile, one last time.

He is gone by the time Reiji gasps for air.

The sky overhead feels nothing when he screams.  The ground does not tremble. The world does not end.  Reiji is simply alone.

He lays what remains of him down on the ground.  In another place, in another time, when he was another person, Reiji would have been able to arrange for a funeral.  A quiet, restful passing, where he could clean the blood from his body and make him look as though he is only asleep.

But here, and now, there is no place.  There is no time. Reiji hesitates before he closes Yuya’s eyes.  The last time he’ll ever see them, he tries not to remember.

With effort, he grips his hands around the pommel of the knife.  It makes an awful sound that he ignores when he rips it free.

Enchanted dragonbone doesn’t just kill Enthralls.  It kills dragons too.


End file.
